(Credit: Petroecuador/Flickr)
(CNN Spanish) -
The Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office reported this Friday that former comptroller Pablo Celi and former manager of Petroecuador, Pablo Flores, were sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison as leaders of a structured group whose mission was to obtain economic benefits.
The court of the National Court of Justice also sentenced nine other defendants with lesser sentences, including a brother of Celi, according to the Prosecutor's Office.
The prosecuting body specified that the defendants obtained economic benefits through "the fading of glosses and compliance with payroll payments", corresponding to contracts signed between Petroecuador and the company Nolimit, between 2017 and 2020.
Celi and Flores were also ordered to pay compensation of US$250,000 each.
Interpol issued a red circular against a corruption suspect in the Petroecuador case
The defense lawyer, Jorge Luis Ortega, said that the sentence was due to "forced, contradictory advance testimonies and without other evidence to corroborate them; a conviction with "information" of the true perpetrators of corruption," he added.
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For his part, Ortega told CNN through his Twitter account that the appeal is possible, and that "If there is any legal error in the sentence, the appeal will be appealed.
If there are constitutional violations, there is an Extraordinary Action for Protection and if a conviction was reached with false witnesses or wrong expert reports, the appeal for review is in order”.
CorruptionPetroecuador